Leonard's Mother Visits
by NatashaS99
Summary: After Leonard's mother comes for a surprise visit, she becomes much closer to Sheldon. Amy becomes upset as he spends more time with Leonard's mother than he has done with her, causing much controversy between them. Meanwhile, Howard visits Bernadette's parents for dinner but this results in an argument between him and her dad, and she is forced to choose between them or him.
1. Chapter 1

_In Sheldon and Leonard's apartment_

Sheldon, Leonard, Howard and Raj were playing dungeon's and dragons after eating Chinese food, which without exception is eaten on Friday. "you enter the dungeon and you see a vicious fire-breathing dragon, what do you do?" Sheldon declared. The other three (not particularly paying attention) were discussing what their plans were for the weekend coming.

"I'm going to have dinner with Bernadette's parents tomorrow" said Howard, in a slightly worried tone, clearly disappointed at the fact. "I'm sure it's not going to be_ that_ bad" comforted Leonard, "it's going to go fine, maybe you just need to spend some time together to get to know each other. after all, it's got to be better than being alone for the weekend like me" Raj added, rather dismayed.

"excuse me, but could we please get back to the game? a dragon is standing right in front of you and you are discussing your weekend plans!" interrupted Sheldon. "to be honest, I should probably be getting ready for tomorrow." Howard admitted, while getting up and putting his jacket on, Raj also admitted that he ought to be going home. This had left Leonard and Sheldon sitting awkwardly side-by-side on the sofa.

"well we can't play Dungeons & Dragons with just the two of us, can we?" Sheldon said in annoyance. "no, we can't. unless..." Leonard begins, but is interrupted by Sheldon "it was a rhetorical question, obviously we can't when Dungeons and Dragons is a four player game!". Leonard sighed and was advancing towards his room, when he receives a call on his phone from his mother.

_A few minutes later_

"My mother's visiting tomorrow" Leonard said to Sheldon in order to break the awkward silence that was filling the room. "why would this concern me other than the fact that there is an additional person in our apartment?" Sheldon replied, "I just thought you might have wanted to know" Leonard sighed, "I was wondering if you could spend some time with her later on so I could have some spare time?" He continued. "but I was going to go to the cinema with Amy tomorrow evening!" objected Sheldon, to which Leonard sighed and switched on the kettle to prepare some coffee.


	2. Chapter 2

_the next day_

"did you hear that your brother just won another Nobel prize?" Leonard's mother told him. Leonard forced a smile "that's great! would you like some tea?" he said as an attempt to try and avoid the subject of his very successful siblings. "if you make it correctly then yes" his mother replied. A few minutes later Leonard came back from the kitchen with the tea, hoping that he got it right. Before drinking it his mother questioned him on how he had made it. "Is it two percent milk?, loose not bagged?, Oolong?, steeped three minutes?, warmed separately?, is the sugar raw?" she inquired, to which Leonard nodded and sat down awkwardly on the seat next to her.

After Leonard and his mother conversed for a short period of time Sheldon, Raj and Howard came to join them. They all found themselves sitting on the sofa with nothing to talk about, until Sheldon asked "how is your work in neuroscience doing?" to which she replied "currently I am focusing on behavioral patterns, I would find it very helpful if I could study your brain to aid my study if that is a possibility?" Sheldon pondered on whether he should accept or not, as he liked getting his brain scanned however he was due to meet with Amy in half an hour to go to the cinema. "I suppose" Sheldon answered, however he felt a great deal of guilt that he had abandoned Amy.

_meanwhile outside the house of Bernadette's parents_

"Don't worry, I'm sure it will go fine. Remember last time you were really worried and in the end it turned out to be fine" Bernadette told Howard, "I'm not sure your parents will still like me though, and even if they do I'm going to still be nervous every time I come over here" He explained. "Bernadette, Howard, is that you?" Called a voice from the house, which was probably Bernadette's father. "yes, it's us" they replied, almost in synchronization but a little off. Bernadette's mother opened the door and welcomed them "How nice to see you both together, we have something very important to discuss with you and it will affect you both" Howard and Bernadette exchanged worried looks.

Soon afterwards her father came downstairs to greet them, "dinner is almost done, you can already sit at the table if you like" he said while gesturing towards a large oak table. "okay" they said, and sat down into the dining chairs, unusually both of Bernadette's parents were being very kind towards them, and even when Bernadette spilt the wine and Howard knocked over a chair they didn't mind. Once everyone had finished their roast beef and potatoes, they looked Howard and Bernadette in the eyes "we have something important to discuss with you listen carefully."


	3. Chapter 3

_While Sheldon is getting his brain scanned_

__"I think I have said this before but you have a remarkable brain Sheldon" Leonard's mother told him, to which he replied "I know - it has to be in order to contain all my genius ideas" he laughed at his own comment. Soon afterwards he heard his phone ringing, so he excused himself from the conversation he was having with Leonard's mother to answer.

"hello?" he said, while wondering who it might be. "hello Sheldon, this is amy" the voice from the phone replied. "oh hello Amy, how are you doing?" "I would be doing fine if you had turned up at the cinema we were going to tonight - where are you?" "with Leonard's mother getting my brain scanned" (Amy's voice starts to sound worried) "oh what happened?" "nothing, I just thought getting my brain scanned was a great deal more interesting than having to watch some sort of romance film, and possibly having to hold hands" to which Amy hangs up, and Sheldon feels somewhat guilty.

"sorry for that interruption Mrs Hofstadter, I had to speak with Amy" Sheldon apologized. "oh, that's fine, you know your brain has great potential, I think we should discuss our knowledge sometime" Leonard's mother asked, "yes I would like that, shall we arrange a time and place where we meet?" Sheldon asked, to which he soon added "what about tomorrow, 5:00 pm, at the cheesecake factory?". "yes, that seems a suitable arrangement" she replied, and they drove back to Sheldon and Leonard's appartment.

_meanwhile in the house of Bernadette's parents_

"so... what is this important 'thing' you have to discuss with us" Howard asks. "well, Bernadette's father has got himself a promotion..." Bernadette's mother says to them, to which they both say "that's great" in unison, and Bernadette carried on "but why would that affect us greatly, why did you call us both over here?" she queried, to which her parent's felt a little uncomfortable, perhaps almost guilty about whatever they were about to say. "the new job is in Australia" her father finally replies.

Both of them sat there gob-smacked, without saying a word. After a long awkward silence Bernadette asked "so, are we going to come too?" and her parents said "you have a choice. you can stay in California with your friends and work, or you can move to Australia with us, so we can still visit each other frequently". Howard realized guiltily "Well, I am in a decent work place now, which I think that I will struggle to find one as good somewhere else, so I'm afraid I will have to stay here" This left Bernadette with a life changing decision, will she choose to stay in California with Howard and her friends, or will she go to Australia with her parents to discover new opportunities?


	4. Chapter 4

_In Amy's apartment the next day_

"I can't believe you ditched me at the cinema yesterday to go and get your brain scanned with some random woman I just..." Amy screamed, but was interrupted by Sheldon who was trying to make an excuse "firstly, she was not a random woman, she was Leonard's mother" "and secondly, it was important for her work" "and lastly..." Sheldon said with some hesitation towards the end. "lastly what?" Amy questioned him. "lastly... I apologize for my actions" he said, as if he was in great pain while doing so. Amy's face suddenly looked more sympathetic, and almost happy. "I guess I could give you another chance..." she told him.

"meet at the cheesecake factory tomorrow, at 5:00pm, and we can have dinner together" she excitedly continued. "But... but... I'm busy, I already have an appointment, I mean a discussion of... work, I mean a..." Sheldon objected, " A what, Sheldon? What could be more important than this? This is your last chance to show up or... or I'm breaking up with you!" Amy said angrily, before walking up to the door at a rather slow pace and managing to choke out "please don't disappoint me Sheldon" and then walked away.

'What am I supposed to do now? I certainly can't skip dinner with Amy, but I already organised a meeting with Mrs Hofstadter.' Sheldon thought to himself, to which he then replied to himself aloud "what if I do both? perhaps I could switch between both events and not have to disappoint anyone" He smiled and brought himself a notepad to write his plan.

_meanwhile when Howard and Bernadette are eating at a restaurant_

Both Bernadette and Howard were poking at their meals, too anxious about what this meal would adjudge. Neither one of them had spoken to the other for the past day unless it was entirely necessary. Eventually, Howard finally murmured "I can't believe you are actually thinking about this. I am your husband and I am staying here, so you should too if you want to keep this relationship. We all know that long distance relationships never work out..." Bernadette stopped playing with her peas and put her fork down. "and I can't believe how selfish you're being! my parents are moving to the other side of the world and all you worry about is what it will mean for you... this is a life changing decision for ME, Howard!"

Howard also placed his cutlery back onto the table and looked Bernadette in the eye. "This is a life changing decision for ME too, you know what? I think that you are the selfish one! you think that you're the one with the big decision to make, you don't even take into consideration on how this might affect me. Maybe you should move to Australia with your parents!" Bernadette's eyes filled with anger... "well maybe I will", "fine" said Howard. They both left the table and drove home, without speaking a word to eachother.


End file.
